HON’BLE SUPREME COURT · SOURCE-REVIEWED NOTE
Punjab Distilling Industries Ltd. v. Commissioner of Income-tax, Simla
Civil Appeal No. 119 of 1955
[1959] Supp. 1 SCR 683 ·
Income-tax Act 1922 section 10 · Business Profits Tax Act · Excess Profits Tax Act
Sources & disclosures includedDownload original judgment / order
3-judge bench · T. L. Venkatarama Aiyar · P. B. Gajendragadkar · A. K. Sarkar
01 · Facts of the case
A distiller required wholesalers to pay additional amounts called empty-bottle security deposits, beyond government-fixed bottle prices. Amounts were refunded as bottles returned, with full refund once ninety percent were returned. Tax was assessed on the balance after refunds.
Source: Primary report: SCR 684–686
02 · Discussion by the Hon’ble Court
The wholesalers had no obligation to return bottles. The extra payment was a condition of each bottled-liquor sale and part of its consideration, rather than a loan or independently constituted security. Separate ledger treatment and contingent repayment did not change that character.
Source: Primary report: SCR 687–697
03 · Judicial decision
The additional amounts were trading receipts and assessable income. The referred question was answered affirmatively.
Source: Primary report: SCR 698
04 · Outcome / in whose favour
The company’s appeal was dismissed with costs in the Supreme Court.
Source: Primary report: SCR 698
05 · AKHB REVIEW POINT
This judgment concerns privately imposed charges for the accounting periods in issue. It expressly did not decide the Revenue’s alternative argument about genuine securities; later Punjab Distilling decisions involving changed arrangements must be kept distinct.
Source: Primary report: SCR 686, 690–691
Source & verification
Download original judgment / order · Open cited source rendition
Complete 16-page Supreme Court Reports scan. Any adjoining report fragments remain in the unchanged original and are excluded from this analysis.
Statutory scope
Historical legislation expressly identified in this note. This is not a decision under the Income-tax Act, 1961 or the Income-tax Act, 2025. Verify enacted wording, commencement, transition and subsequent judicial treatment independently before modern reliance.
Later treatment
Source checked 2026-10-23. Subsequent treatment and present-law applicability have not been comprehensively checked.
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